The age limit proposal (at yesterday's ISU Congress session) was easily the most debated, interesting discussion so far. People felt quite strongly about it, enough that they had to take a lunch break in the middle before doing the actual vote. But in the end, it wasn't that close of a vote.
Today's individual figure skating session was probably more irritating than it should have been, as certain council members seemed confused and they kept talking in circles. However, a few interesting things were hammered out:
1- They plan to test out splitting the PCS and TES panels for major competitions this year. In other words, judges will do one or the other, but not both. They were planning on voting on it today, but decided that they need to test it out before making it a policy. It won't apply to smaller competitions.
2- There will be a qualification round added to the World Championships starting in the 2024-2025 season. As was policy in recent years, the top countries in the previous WC will gain automatic berths (24 for singles, 20 in ID, & 16 in pairs,) but remaining spots will be determined by a qualifying round prior to the short program/rhythm dance.
3- In a somewhat related issue, they voted in favour of setting absolute minimum scores for qualification to Euros/4Cs/Worlds on August 1st moving on from this season forward. Up until now, the ISU tech panel was allowed to change the minimums mid-season if they thought too many skaters might achieve them.
4- Women aren't required to wear skirts in ice dance anymore. Technically prior to this point they had to apply for an exception by proving that trousers were appropriate for their rhythm dance, lest they be penalized.
The big discussion is tomorrow morning (8am GMT) as the figure skating session will discuss technical issues, most importantly the potential change from 5 program components to just 3 (skating skills, composition, and presentation). In addition, they will look at removing the draw from free programs at Grand Prix events (meaning that the free program start order would no longer be random, but based on reverse order of short program results,) replacing the step sequence in junior singles skating with a choreographic sequence, and allowing athletes to add a third jump to their jump sequences.
On Friday, at the final main ISU Congress session, they will hold elections for the Council. Most notably, both the President and VP of the ISU will be replaced, as well as the FSU president. This is primarily because after approximately a million years of service, Alexander Lakernik has officially reached retirement age. They tried to change the age limit rules from 75 to 80 yesterday to keep him in power, but it was (thankfully) voted down.
